I wasn’t reading the news as of late, so I got nothing to rattle about the Goody-Two-Shoes Government, but for the matter, I am still going to blog about something. The week has been rather kind to me, with much partying and dinner makan~ Yummy~~ Attended two weddings and an on-coming baby full-month celebration (it’s a Chinese tradition that dates back thousands of years ago, when it is a time infant mortality is at a high rate, so infants who survived a full one month is a cause for celebration of strength; well..that’s what I heard about).

With so much buzzing of bees during the wedding celebrations, them relatives have the tendency to pressure you with talks of pending marriages (It’s never a good thing to be in a large family, no space for privacy!). C’mon, I’m still bloody young (in fact, I’m in the wee 20s!), and I haven had enough fun yet to start thinking about settling down. And I would want to be able to stand fully on my own two feet and more to keep, before I fully mellow down to just everyday routines. So I just distance myself from the "old and wise", and just party on with the young and hippy! Ranks don’t matter, cos I may be the aunty of the group, but I am no 99 compared with them!

Ahhh…..Nothing much to rant already…Till another time, when I gather more information on not only local politics, but International politics. My friends say I should be studying sociology, but Nah…. I am tired of memorizing scrolls and scrolls of text… Unless they are Novels!

All hail to the arrival of…..Tingz from Aussia~..Actually it is a comeback for her after spending most of the last 4-5 years hopping around the outback..hehehe~~~~

But I am so glad to have her back~ us F4 went to Sushi-Tei for dinner (*Yummyz!!~), ate to our fill!! Tingz brought many stuff back that she nearly got over-baggaged (Hahahazz…I created a new word, or did I?) I and Jol got our Crumppy baggies and sarah got her wine and Rox candy (So sweet!) Leenz also got her 2 baggies full of SWEETS which she gleefully shared with us!

I said I’d keep the promise that I will go to VivoCity with Tingz and I kept my words!! The bloody huge mall nearly got us lost, esp Leenz who came after her company dinner~ She got lost and end up at habour front, lucky I know my way around there after getting directions from a group of cute helpers (esp the girl…so かわいい！) they direct me the way to habourfront center! kekeke…And also..that’s where we had Sushi-Tei..すごえいです！！すきのたべます！

I told Panda about the dinner, and he was so jealous! Hahahahazzzz…..I told him I only promised him steak. Anyway, he’s cool about us hanging out and regrets he couldn’t come along. Too bad, his work schedule is always so busy, I fare no better! ~.~

Anyway, I am done with ranting today~~ till another time!!

P.S: Damn…! I should have taken photos of that wonderful dinner!! NVM! we can enjoy more of such dinners in future!

As had been said by wise elder uncles and aunties during lazy afternoons chit chat over chess, once the government starts rising, they can never stop. It is like getting high on drugs; get high once, and you will not want it to end. In view of such comparison, the similarities are in fact very close.

True to their words, the government started the hike of GST, from an initial 3% to 5% in about 5 years time length, and now 7% in a span of a few years. On top of that, the recent agreement to hike transport fares were in the run, and there were plans to expend road pricing to include roads that were frequently used. They always say the increase is inevitable, to cover the cost of the systems’ operation, to provide more help to the needy..etc. My view: Yes, this I might agree to certain level. the needy does require our help as much as possible, but not to a point of total dependency. I like the idea to help the needy, but I do not agree to providing help with both eyes closed. Like once I was chatting with my late friend who died of some illness. She once said the needy do require our attention for care and concern. But just by providing them with money isn’t going to solve their problem. There are much better ways to giving them the comfort they need, if the people just put in the effort to assess the main root of their problem. I read in articles about some schools that did a study, and came up with a way to help the needy children with a solution to provide a meal to ensure the kids grow up healthy, and with the alertness to study hard. The residents help pitch in by donating the necessary provisions for making a healthy meal. The Singapore Version if I’m not mistaken is for the residents to donate cash to buy stuff. It is logical, but sometimes I do not know if the money being donated has been put to good use, or has some of it landed up in the organizers’ pocket. They say that their organization has a transparent system, but no fact-sheet has been heard of in public.

Now with the oncoming increase of GST, the government assures the residents that the tax increase is to better the lives of the needy. But in what form or manner? How much are the government willing to let it be known? Is there a fact-sheet stating exactly how well used are the money collected from our hard-earnings? We can only guess and hope the government do not take us for fools. The governmental body taxes so much from us working residents, but the one thing that doesn’t increase with the governments’ taxes are our pay. How are the lowly paid civilians going to survive if tax increase without the balancing ratio of pay increment? Comparing with a bottle-neck theory: you fill up the bottle with water till it reaches the neck level. Say it is a soft-plastic bottle, you cork the bottle and start squeezing the body, the water will rise till the cork cannot take the pressure, and pop, it will shoot out of the bottle. The water be our pay, with the person (as the cork), sitting on top of his pay. The government squeezes his earnings by introducing higher taxes without an increment check of his pay. In time, when the cork shoots out of the bottle, Singapore can say goodbye to loosing that person to another country, or by means of suicide. That very person could be a talent, and thus Singapore will loose a talent. I certainly hope the government will do more study with the Mass community before making rash decisions. Singapore will stand to loose everything if the government continues to squeeze the capped bottle.

Now I am ranting about something I hope will spread far and wide…Like a Disease…This is regarding my present working company from 2004 to 2006, Unilib in Singapore. I may not know much about management, but I have worked in so many different companies of different environments I believed I have seen enough to pass my judgement about this company’s poor way of management. I understand the difficulties about clients talking big crap and ever-changing ways to their business-tract. But I also understand the company also has it ways to deal with pesky clients like these with the power of proper contract-paper. I have seen it electronic boards manufacturing company I used to worked in. If ever the client decides to change anything except to extend the time of delivery, the company has the right to charge accordingly to whatever the client wishes to change. So it is up to the client to be 101% sure of how they want things to be before signing the contact papers without further regrets. I do not see such things happening in Unilib. Furthermore, once the client extended a schedule but needs to revert it, the company will hold the right to charge them accordingly. This I heard from my previous boss, that it is to protect the welfare of the company’s employees.(of cos that company does not encourage much overtime, but the pay is good). Not a wonder many who works there find it difficult to quit because of the comfort and protection the company takes to ensure their workers are not ill-treated. I quit the company after it decides to move the whole quarters to China.

And there is the issue about the company’s executive management employees. First thing, they are all blind-mice. To put it simply, they view all sort of issues in a straight line, only 1 mm thick. Especially the overall operation manager, she could hear one side of the story, nods her head, hear another side of the story and nods her head, makes decisions without basic thinking on employees welfare; she only thinks about getting the $$ of the delivered goods as fast as possible. What about the over-working staff? As much as she is concerned, they are all a bunch of lazy-dorks. She frowns at her subordinates over small matters such as taking leave, or MC. and She doesn’t like to admit when she is in the wrong, although it is typical of most bosses and executive employees(small matter, I personally enjoys ruffling their feathers). This company has been operating for more than 18 years, and every non-executive employee are taking the workload of at least 2 or more people. There are 3 directors in this company, meaning to say during peak-season, the workload would be three-fold. but the number of employees doing testing: 5 (including one especially doing enterprises work:6). number of comissioning/site maintainence employees: 3.5 out of the same group of people. Number of poduction employees: 4; number of admin: 1.5 (including a receptionist who picks up the phone, do admin work and circuit drawing; she is someone I called a super-woman); number of draftperson is therefore, 1.5 as well. number of purchaser:1. Do note the admin. in the company must be able to do shipment, packing, accounts, office necessities stock keep, project-contract documentation-in/out..etc etc. the people who does the engineering portion of the job, must learn: all sorts of PLC programs ever found in the whole world, all sorts of different components found in all kinds of engines in the whole world, and still keep testing documentation and write manuals, plus to repair damaged components and calibrations. .Well..the list just gones on and on..Overall the company’s lower employees are over-worked, with very little to no incentives: no transport allowance given unless you are working overtime. Low pay and Overtime fee will be capped at a per hour rate when you reach a pay of 1.8K. Overseas site work at $25 a day if you travel to M’sia, and $50 anywhere else in the world. oil/gas platform jobs at $80 a day. When compared to other companies, they are paid at least $150 a day for platform work, and overtime pay per hour rates included! and at least $100 when they are overseas, over all accomodation expenses!Unilib company is down right Rotten, one can even compare it with construction cite companies, whose foreign workers are even better looked after. Therefore, when a company has rotten management, their employees will give rotten service as well.

I believe this is the longest rant I have…and I’m seriousy hopping people all over the world will notice this. I’m pretty sure there are lots of companies with rotten management as this one. I’m still in the company as I am helping my cousin for the time being, but after his worst fears are behind him, I’ll naturally be leaving.